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Spotsylvania Sex Crime Investigations

When it comes to Spotsylvania sex crime investigations, the protocol is mostly similar to the investigation of other crimes, with some minor differences.

When investigating sex crimes, law enforcement is typically more careful because of the weight of the crime, and the weight of the consequences an individual charged with a sex crime faces. If you are under investigation for sex crime charges, consult a skilled attorney who can defend you.

Duration of Investigation

Sex crimes are investigated in Spotsylvania a little bit differently from other crimes. The duration of sex crimes is longer than the investigation of other crimes. Usually, there is some task force or this detective is usually assigned after a report comes in.

Process of Investigating

Law enforcement is going to be calling a person’s neighbors, calling their friends, calling their family, trying to find witnesses. If there is no alleged victim, they are going to take that person’s statement and they are going to find other individuals who could have been witnesses, who could corroborate the allegation made the complaining witness.

If it is a third-party allegation, they are going to try to talk the original victim to try to find out what is going on. Then after that, they will go to the potential defendant to try to either confirm or dispel their suspicions about what is going on, and they will try to get statements from that person and get an interview on the record with that person to potentially use that information against them in the court later on.

In Spotsylvania sex crime investigations, they are often more focused on getting a confession out of the potential defendant than in other cases prior to the arrest. Spotsylvania sex crime investigations can be an intense experience but an experienced sex crimes lawyer can help alleviate some of the anxiety that comes with being the subject of a sex crimes case.

Are investigations common prior to arrests in sex crime cases?

It is common for Spotsylvania sex crime investigations to occur before arrests. In the more serious cases, they are more likely to happen. But certainly, in sex crimes cases, investigations where the police, at the least, interview the complaining witness or the alleged victim, interview other witnesses, and interview the alleged perpetrator with a potential defendant are almost always going to happen before charges are filed in this type of case.

Differences Between Sex Crime Investigations and Other Crimes

The investigation in sex crime cases is different from other cases because sex crime cases often have a lengthy period of investigation before the actual arrest. Whereas other cases often have a short time period between the alleged act and the arrest and it is not immediate, for sex crimes cases, there is usually some type of investigation where the officers are asking family members, friends, or coworkers depending on the situation. They will try to interview probably the defendant at least once, if not multiple times. There is a lot of initial groundwork done before the charge itself is actually brought.

Who Investigates Cases

The person that decides to initiate the investigation is going to be whoever takes the situation at the police station. Somebody is going to do an intake at the police station from a complaint and then, from there, it will probably be assigned to a detective who is going to either initiate an investigation or not initiate an investigation. At the least, they are going to be interviewing that person that made the complaint and the alleged victim.

In most situations, law enforcement decides to instigate Spotsylvania sex crime investigations. The agencies that handle these investigations are usually the local police departments, specifically the sex crimes department. There is often a sex crime task force or a specific detective that does these types of cases that will investigate and review the investigation.
From there, most often, they will interview the alleged perpetrator and they will try to get a statement from them. Usually, those are the steps that they take whether or not they ultimately end up charging somebody with a specific sex crime.

What Evidence is Sought

What they are looking for is a confession or some admission of guilt or admission of an action that would be punishable under the law.

What they are going to be doing is trying to get the alleged perpetrator or the potential defendant to say that they did something that they can charge them with or admit to some chargeable behavior.

How is Evidence Collected

The cases often come down to he-said, she-said. What they are going to want to do is get a statement any way that they can from the alleged defendant.

There is never a situation where it is a good idea to talk to the police even if it was a genuine misunderstanding or even if it was a mistaken identity. It never helps a person to talk to the police about this type of situation.

Contacting a Lawyer

Spotsylvania sex crime investigations are often proved on literally he-said, she-said evidence, if it is a situation that happened in the past, then sometimes physical evidence can be lacking.

For sex crimes, just because it is of an intimate nature, sometimes there are not outside witnesses and it is just going to be what an individual says to the police, says to an investigator, or says to a friend about what happened. It can potentially be serious.

What that means is there is a situation where somebody could say something that could sound innocent or that they think is innocent or something like that in a sex crimes case and it could potentially be used against them. A person’s words matter so much more in these cases and that is a situation that rules in the investigation purpose.

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